End of Turbo Lister - No Longer Supported

[gec2002]

Checked Turbo Lister and went to list a couple of items and recived an error message and unable to upload the files

Error:- Turbo Lister is no longer supported. Learn more about alternative tools you can use to manage your business on eBay

https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/Turbo-Lister

When you go to the Seller centre it shows headings for

Retiring Turbo Lister - But no actual information just the heading

Alternatives to Turbo Lister - But no actual information just the heading

How to Export Ended Listings - An image of the Export page and a short explanation.

eBay emailed that Turbo Lister was ending in February, but perhaps a few days notice before the unknown shut off date would have been appreciated by eBay Sellers.  Then to state info on alternatives would be provided and show nothing is just plain pathetic.

I am using File Exchange for most listings, however, dispite all its issues Turbo Lister has served me well over a very long period of time.  eBay said before shutting down TL that Seller Hub would have the same functionality - it doesn't - mainly the ability to work off- line and store info offline.  Being forced to pay a monthly fee to other organisations just to load items will not sit well for many sellers. 

[minimum_56]

I just had the same problem when I went to edit some listings in TL...
Error. Turbo Lister no longer supported

I found the same as you - no info on the pages I was directed to & I'm not going to pay a 3rd party - not with what they charge per month!!

[dazzledayz]

They've been promising Turbolister functionality via Seller Hub since announcing TL's retirement when SH was first introduced.

That was what, 2 years ago?

File exchange is almost TL now but without the ability to upload local images to ebay's image servers.

eBay have all the necessary API's to replace TL functions so all they really needed to do was build an interface to call them.

The upload could have been done via a CSV file for text data and with local machine addresses for images.

It's not too hard to do so all I can think is that they didn't want to execute the plan for some unknown business reason.

Yet another promise not kept and no apology or explanation.

[gec2002]

Not sure why eBay won't do it.  On the US "Weekly Chat with eBay Staff" about 3 months ago they hinted that Turbo Lister would be staying, but just last week the said that it was definitely finished.  The UK/Europe lost it about 2 weeks ago, however I think the US aren't scheduled to end for up to 6 months.  While they couldn't care about Aussie sellers the composite might really hit the fan when they shut it down in the US, particularly if they just spring it on their sellers with no other info.  Probably about the only hope of getting it back.

"File exchange is almost TL now but without the ability to upload local images to ebay's image servers."

I use a host for a webpage and store all my image offsite so not an issue.  I have not tried this but it may work.  Could you put a dummy URL into FE eg hpps://dummy.com/dummy.jpg load and then goto Seller Hub and manually upload local images.  Labour intensive but could try if not a lot of listings?

[minimum_56]

I've been a seller on ebay since 2002.

I've always used ebay's bulk listing programs...first Mister Lister then Turbo Lister.
I've looked & had a go at File Exchange - but for some reason I had problems with the images. (maybe my hosting had the problem??)

As TL was still working I didn't bother to find out or fix my File Exchange image problems.
Now I have to dig around to find the File Exchange spreadsheets & give it another go...*sigh*

[toygirl70]

Unbelievable that there is no replacement. Ebay have a terrible track record for just stuffing things up and leave everyone hanging 

[davewil1964]

If you have SMP, Seller Hub provides an inventory function. It's only good for about 400 listings and tends to drop the pics after a few months.

[gec2002]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

If you have SMP, Seller Hub provides an inventory function. It's only good for about 400 listings and tends to drop the pics after a few months.

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Unfortunately inventory on my main store is currently 8302, and my other store is5017.

[davewil1964]

I can't help then.

I have 2500 items, but I only keep prospective listings in inventory, and I NEVER delete descriptions and pics and prices from my computer until items sell.

[dazzledayz]

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@gec2002 wrote:

Not sure why eBay won't do it.  On the US "Weekly Chat with eBay Staff" about 3 months ago they hinted that Turbo Lister would be staying, but just last week the said that it was definitely finished.  The UK/Europe lost it about 2 weeks ago, however I think the US aren't scheduled to end for up to 6 months.  While they couldn't care about Aussie sellers the composite might really hit the fan when they shut it down in the US, particularly if they just spring it on their sellers with no other info.  Probably about the only hope of getting it back.

"File exchange is almost TL now but without the ability to upload local images to ebay's image servers."

I use a host for a webpage and store all my image offsite so not an issue.  I have not tried this but it may work.  Could you put a dummy URL into FE eg hpps://dummy.com/dummy.jpg load and then goto Seller Hub and manually upload local images.  Labour intensive but could try if not a lot of listings?

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eBay say this works though I haven't tried it myself as i don't use an image host.

The URL's you provide are used to call those images from the remote hosting server.

eBay will copy your 1st pic to their image server (EPS) but will load the others from the remote server.

The problem then becomes one of server lag ie the main image will load instantly but any others may take some time to arrive.

The only problem you'd have with loading your images from off-site, which appears to be the way eBay would prefer, is to use a host that can serve those images with very high available bandwidth and none of these are free any more after Photobucket started to charge for their service.

The thing that bugs me is that eBay already have the API to load multiple images directly to EPS and return their URL's:

eBay EPS API

They just choose not to implement it themselves though it would have been relatively simple to implement from their end.

I can only imagine that this is to make us pay for our image storage and save load on the EP Servers.

I guess that's also the reason images only stick around for 90 days.